Kno Dual-Screen Tablet Delayed Without Explanation

The Kno dual-screen tablet seemed like an odd idea with narrow appeal from the start. This device was originally supposed to ship to those with preorders late last year, but now Engadget has gotten confirmation that the Kno is indeed delayed. They didn't get much more information than that. Well, Kno did go out of their way to say everything is "going well". We would beg to differ.

The Kno is expected to be packing Nvidia Tegra 2 inside, and uses 14-inch capacitive touchscreens with a special stylus included. It is being pitched as a digital textbook reader for students. But at $899 for the cheaper dual-screen version, it's going to be a tough sell even if they get all the bugs worked out and ship it. Would you consider getting this product?

Comments

The Kno business model appears based on the assumption that students only buy new texts at full list prices. I was an eng student for 6 years and I never bought a text at list price, let alone bring one to class. Let's take an example. Kno lists the 10th edition of the J. P. Holman text on heat transfer at $144 (marked down from $200 list). But - you can buy this text for $31 at Abebooks from International sellers. I can find a much cheaper price for all the science titles that Kno lists; in fact, even at prices cheaper than their rental prices! Take another example, the 2010 edition of Frank White's Fluid Mechanics. Kno sells it for $134.78 ("marked down" from a list of $187), but you can buy it from half.com for $100. Kno rents it for $104.83. And if you go to earlier editions, often justified given the lack of difference between editions, book cost reduces to little more than the cost of shipping. So the Kno tablet takes away all of the pricing leverage that you get from having multiple sourcing options, ironically winds up costing you more, and even leaves you with the inability to recapture cost through resale. When you couple that with the fact that you have a 5.6 lb tablet with client only USB, no local storage, and no ability to run spreadsheet, database, word or math apps (let alone anything else) you are now in the wicked position of having to spend not only more on books but more on a second computer to run the apps you cannot run on the Kno tab. The Kno tablet also presents some security concerns since the crown jewels - text + notes - are all in one place. When you can buy a Lenovo X201 tablet at 3.5 lbs with an i7 running MS Journal or OneNote at refurb prices < $1k direct from Lenovo, the Kno tablet makes no sense. And there are other tablet options in the queue, like the Asus EP121 with a 12 inch screen, an i7 + ssd and 2 usb. Also the Asus EA800, a wacom enabled tablet at < $300, looks interesting for class notes that you can sync with Evernote. And that's just the tip of the coming tablet tsunami. The bottom line is that the Kno tab is a heavy hardware solution with no local storage, no apps, and no juice - one that requires a second pc to fill in the gaping productivity holes - and one that ironically forces you to buy books at greater costs than you otherwise would - which is contrary to the whole point of the model. So who were the VCs who backed this woof? I've got a bridge.

When you think about the technology that goes into the Kno it's not overly expensive. The idea behind the 14" panels is to portray 95% of the digital textbooks at their intended resolutions without having to "scroll" through the page. Additionally the Dual screen tablet is essentually two tablets bridged trogether (I could be wrong here but pretty sure I'm not). As for the weight the single tablet is 2.6lbs while the dual is 5.6lbs. This tablet isn't marketed at the populous but to students. It's intention is to rid them of their textbooks, pens/pencils, notebooks, and everything else. If on a tablet I could copy and paste text or graphics into a notebook or write a note in my textbook or place a sticky in it and anything else you can do with a "physical" book and notebook that is what the Kno is intended for as it can do all those things. I'm not saying you can't do that with your iPad or other tablets but it's nice to see a tablet intended for students is all. I'm excited for it.

a dual screen "tablet"? give me a break this is not much more than a netbook with two screens! Granted the internals are different to match other tablet SoC setups, but the exterior layout just screams netbook. Much like the Microsoft Courier that never came out. Atleast this thing would protect the screens when closed as opposed to normal slate tablet designs.